Fish, Not Fishing Lessons: A Pragmatic Reprioritization of Reference Services

Reference services in academic libraries often focus on user education and giving students the skills to perform their own searches. This article describes a new Research Concierge Service established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) in southwest Missouri. The service entails library staff curating a small number of sources in response to a student’s research request. In many cases, the librarians’ guidance has led to sustained interactions with students, refining their questions and helping them to focus their research interests. The Research Concierge Service has become so popular that the high level of individual contact it requires may eventually exceed the capacity of OTC’s limited staff. OTC librarians believe, however, that such personal interactions are more valuable than any of their current opportunities for group tutorials or library instruction.